Occult hepatitis B: the masked driver of portal hypertension and life-threatening variceal hemorrhage
Prabhat Kaphle, Raj Kumar Koirala, Maya Upadhyaya, Supriya Karna, Dhanlaxmi Giri, Pukar Gupta, Nabin Pahari, Liladhar Ojha, Suman Bhatta, Rohit Bhatt · 2026
Read Occult hepatitis B: the masked driver of portal hypertension and life-threatening variceal hemorrhage by Prabhat Kaphle, Raj Kumar Koirala, Maya Upadhyaya, Supriya Karna, Dhanlaxmi Giri, Pukar Gupta, Nabin Pahari, Liladhar Ojha, Suman Bhatta, Rohit Bhatt (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13461026.txt.
Description
Prabhat Kaphle and colleagues present in 2026 a 30-year-old Bangladeshi man whose vomiting of blood traced back to a hidden hepatitis B infection. Occult infection means the usual surface antigen test reads negative while viral DNA still circulates, quietly injuring the liver. His first tests were doubly misleading: surface antigen and core antibody both came back negative. His liver ultrasound showed no cirrhosis or lesions, yet his esophagus held swollen varicose veins that had burst.
Viral DNA testing finally confirmed the hidden infection as the driver of his portal hypertension. Bleeding was stopped with transfusions and fluids, a beta blocker was started, and repeated endoscopic banding sessions tied off the veins. Follow-up showed stable varices with no new bleeding, and the authors stress DNA testing whenever portal hypertension lacks an explanation.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Prabhat Kaphle, Raj Kumar Koirala, Maya Upadhyaya, Supriya Karna, Dhanlaxmi Giri, Pukar Gupta, Nabin Pahari, Liladhar Ojha, Suman Bhatta, Rohit Bhatt |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 18898 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |